People

During my stay in Japan, I have met a variety of different people. This is only natural; human beings are unique and given the brand new culture presented to me here, I’m going to encounter an even more diverse set of people than what I’m used to experiencing.

My first impression of Japanese people was a neutral. I know I should not judge a whole group of people on stereotypes and that one person doesn’t represent the whole; but when that is your basis without any experience to disprove or support it, it’s hard not to go on that information.

At one point, I thought I saw the racist and intolerant side of Japan that is often stereo-typed. When I told Japanese in Touhoku I was going to Yokohama (housing Japan’s largest China Town), I was told that the Japanese were fine and dandy. BUT I had to be careful with my goods because the Chinese might try to steal them. This honestly made me laugh. It seemed so petty. I had encountered other resentment with Asia in past conversations with Touhoku residents. When asked about the island between Japan and Korea (Dokdo to the Koreans and Takeshima to the Japanese) they claimed Koreans might live there now, but since Japanese originally lived on it, it was theirs. I was unable to get an answer beyond that. And I still don’t know which is true in that matter. Not to mention while we were in Hiroshima, one Japanese called America cowards and destroyers b/c we fought with technology. 

But I’ve also encountered a lot of people in Japan that have proved stereotype s wrong as well as the idea that you can’t base people off of assumptions. Twice while traveling, a stranger came up, asked us our destination, and proceeded to take us directly to where we needed to go; sometimes even when it was out of their way. I overheard conversations after Hiroshima about understanding a country’s crimes, looking past the hate, and understanding the humans behind the country’s face. When we needed to get to the bus station, our Japanese friends went out of their way late at night, to run off and try to find where we needed to go to board our bus home.

Community. When looking at my community in the nearby vicinity in Morioka, it's a bit hard. There's not much interaction between my host mother and the neighbor at least in what she includes me in, so it's hard to say.

Here's what I do know. It's quite beautiful; despite being near a major road with businesses lining the sides, it's fairly quiet (except for those annoying government vans and the dog living around the corner). The neighbors all seem to know each other on an acquaintance basis; it's not rare to see two passerby stop for a quick chat, and my host mom is often sidetracked by fellow neighbors when seen with a foreigner. For the eighth or ninth time too, haha.

So people seem to mind their own business with a cheery disposition towards others. I wonder if this is because of the business setting right in their backyards, or if this is uniform throughout Morioka or even Japan.



But the best part of the community in my opinion is that of the park being simply in the middle of it. The trees seem to split it up giving enough space and area for relaxtion whether it's older school kids biking, someone taking a quick bite during a breather, or kids playing on the equipment. In fact, green seems a very common theme with plants shoved in almost nook and cranny not road, house, or parking.

Impressions

As with all traveling experiences, I guess the biggest thing that sticks out for people is the differences. For me, there was no difference. I think it all started with the plane where English wasn't the 1st option, or even the 2rd, but the 3rd.

Finally English! After three screens of Chinese and Japanese only for it to be in... the metric system! This eventually changed as once we hit Narita, you get to add Korean to the mix. It does make for shortcuts if you know Kanji or Hangeul; otherwise you're stuck waiting for English to know where you are. Not a gripe, but was definitely the first sense of culture shock.

After that it was, 'Look at this! Look at that! It's so different!' I don't think it helped we stayed in a traditional looking inn for the first few nights either...

Either way, after the initial shock, the differences seem to give way to the similarities. Hopefully, as someone wiser advised me, that will help highlight what makes Japan so special.